Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Argentina (Ratification: 1950)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Argentina (Ratification: 2016)

The Committee notes the observations of the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA Workers) of 1 September 2017, as well as the Government’s reply to the previous observations of the CTA workers of 25 August 2014 concerning difficulties in the application of the Act No. 24.660 on the execution of sentences of detention, 1996, in relation to work done by prisoners carried out for the benefit of private entities.

Article 2(2)(c) of the Convention. Prison labour. The Committee previously noted the establishment of the Single Union of Workers Deprived of Freedom of Movement (SUTPLA) in 2012 which constitutes an additional element approximating the conditions of work of prisoners for private entities to those of free workers. The Committee takes note of the adoption of Act No. 27.375 of 28 July 2017 amending Act No. 24.660, as well as of the study on prison labour published in 2017 by the Office of the Procurator of Prisons (Procuración Penitenciaria de la Nación), both forwarded by the Government. It notes that this study comes in response to a Criminal Court ruling of 1 December 2014 which concluded that work done by prisoners should be regulated by labour provisions and suggested that the Agency for technical and financial cooperation with the prison service (ENCOPE), in collaboration among others with the Office of the Procurator of Prisons, shall draft labour regulations for persons deprived of their liberty. It notes that this study contains the main proposals formulated by the Office of the Procurator of Prisons in this regard. Noting that, according to the study, 70 per cent of the prisoners were working in 2016 (compared to 40 per cent in 2010), the Committee notes the CTA workers’ indication that according to section 110 of Act No. 24.660, while a prisoner cannot be forced to work, such refusal will be considered as a “medium fault” having an impact on the appreciation of the prisoner’s behaviour, thus resulting in indirect coercion to work in practice. Noting that the first National Action Plan on Human Rights 2017–20 set as an explicit objective to increase to 75 per cent the number of persons involved in prison labour, the Committee invites the Government to provide information on the application of section 110 of Act No. 24.660 in practice, including on any sanctions that may be imposed on a prisoner for the “medium fault” resulting from his or her refusal to work, as well as statistical information on the number of prisoners sanctioned in this regard. It further requests the Government to provide updated information on the drafting process of any labour regulations that would specifically regulate prison labour to better implement the Convention.